Amtrak train

Jim Allison is a senior planner with the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA), which is a consortium of government agencies in Northern California, between Auburn in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Silicon Valley, including Oakland and other parts of the East Bay. The CCJPA contracts with Amtrak to provide commuter and other train service in a coordinated way throughout its service area.

Mr. Allison spoke today with Unwired LA about current and future deployment of wireless Internet access aboard the trains operated by Amtrak within the CCJPA.

During that conversation, Mr. Allison talked about the structure of the Capital Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA); its relation to Amtrak (it contracts with Amtrak to provide rail service within the CCJPA area); how some Amtrak stations in the area have Wi-Fi hot spots; how Amtrak is working with PointShot Wireless of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to provide wireless access, right now, in one train car (6962) that moves around as part of several different "train sets" that ply the tracks within the CCJPA area; how train users can discover that car's schedule online, at http://www.capitolcorridor.org/aboard_the_train/wi_fi.php; how, like Starbucks or Philadelphia, trains can now draw in customers by offering free (or reasonably-priced) wireless access; and how CCJPA is about to enter a new phase of commercial trials involving three new teams of companies offering on-board wireless service, starting in the December, 2004-January 2005 timeframe, so that travelers will be able to access the Internet wireless on all the Amtrak/CCJPA trains.

Current service, according to Mr. Allison, was better than 56kpbs, but not as good as DSL. The limiting factor here, he said, is in the "backhaul" of connectivity from the moving train back to the Internet. Future deployments of WiMax technology may alleviate this bottleneck, he indicated.

The two general strategies now for providing wireless connectivity on trains are to either use land-based equipment to establish a cloud of Internet connectivity over the area traversed by the train track or to generate this access cloud on-board the train itself.

Among the more advanced ideas discussed in the interview was the possibility of transmitting Internet connectivity into moving trains through the catenary that delivers electricity to power the train itself, using Broadband over Power Line (BPL) technology.

Also discussed was the idea of providing car-wide or individualized display screens to deliver video entertainment programming into cars equipped with broadband wireless access and the requisite viewing devices.

Also floated was the concept of making train-based broadband wireless access so universal, ubiquitous and enjoyable that passengers might never want to get off.

You can hear this interview with Jim Allison by clicking here.